When We Started Living
by Rae Rae0343
Summary: People in my family all have a fascination with computers; my mom, little brother, myself. I never did think that my life would have meaning until I was trapped in one.
1. Chapter 1

Today was the official launch date of Sword Art Online. I've been playing for awhile now as a beta tester. Honestly I've become a bit addicted to it. I've accomplished so much in the time I was a beta and I believed that it would take me no time at all to get back up to the level I had.

Everyone will log on at one o'clock when the game officially starts and I will be logging on at one-fifteen, because I'm sure the servers will be crammed. That will give me some time to eat a snack before I go in. As I was walking to the kitchen I saw my younger brother make his way to his room, probably to log on now. He was also a beta tester and he was just as addicted to the game as I was.

"We're meeting up at five-thirty in the Town of Beginnings and then going on a dungeon raid right?" I asked him.

"Yup, don't be late." He replied continuing to his room. I may not be good at keeping track of time, but there is no way I will be late. I want to level up as soon as possible.

Once I finished my strawberries and cream I went to mine and Suguha's room to log in. I put the nervegear on my head and did all of the calibrations. Then I laid down on my bed ready to fully dive into Aincrad. I'm ready to game. "Link Start." I said.

I opened my eyes to see I spawned in a field outside of the Town of Beginnings. There was a pack of four wolves stalking towards me. I might as well level up while I wait for five-thirty to roll around. I equipped my standard sword seeing as all of my equipment was taken from me, as to be expected. Everything was restarted except for my character profile. I can work with that.

I fully turned towards the wolves and charged at them with my sword raised activating my sword skill. I easily sliced through two wolves. The other two I will have to be a bit faster for in close proximity. The remaining two wolves skidded to a stop and started to surround me. I swiped my sword at one and spun to get the other. Then switched back to the first for the kill blow and just like that the last wolf had all of my attention. All it took was one more hit and that one was killed too.

The congratulations icon appeared and I collected my xp, level two already. Those wolves were level five, so it's no surprise. I set out to kill more of the surrounding creatures, hopefully I can get to level fifteen before I log off tonight.

Five-thirty came, so I sheathed my sword and was about to teleport to the Town of Beginnings when I teleported on my own. I didn't click teleport… All around me people were teleporting here. I can only think of this as being a forced teleport, I wonder what the reason for this could be?

A warning icon light up in the sky and multiplied. It looked like blood was leaking through each of the icons. The liquid came together and created the Game Master. It looks like someone is going to explain.

"Attention players, welcome to my world." He started. "My name is Akihiko Kayaba and at this moment I am in control of this world." Huh, I don't understand. Akihiko created this game, but why is he still able to control it? That isn't fair, he could change certain aspects of the game as we are playing.

"I am sure most of you have noticed you all have an item missing from your main menu, the logout button." I quickly brought up my menu to check and saw that he was right, there is no main menu. I guess something was bound to go wrong with all of these people on the server. Akihiko continued, "Let me assure you this is not a defect in the game. I repeat, this is not a defect in the game. This is how Sword Art Online was meant to be." He trapped us in here…. There is no other way to logout without going through the main menu!

"You can not log yourselves out of SAO and no one from the outside will be able to shut down or remove the Nervegear from your head. If anyone tries to do so a transmitter from inside the Nervegear will transmit a microwave signal to your skull, destroying your brain and ending your life. Despite my warning the families and friends of some of the players have attempted to remove the Nervegear and unfortunate decision to say the least. So the game now has two hundred- thirteen less players than when it began. They have been deleted from both Aincrad and the real world." That's a lot of people for the game having only been online for a couple of hours.

A bunch of media clips appeared around him. "As you can see I have round the clock coverage of everything including the deaths. It is safe to assume the odds of the Nervegear being removed are minimal at best. I hope this brings you little comfort as you try to clear the game." One of the clips had my mom trying to comfort a crying Suguha. Poor them it looks like mom lost two kids to this game…

"It's important that you remember the following; there is no longer anyway to revive someone within the game, if your hp drops to zero will be deleted from the system forever and the Nervegear will simultaneously destroy your brain. Right now you are on floor one, the lowest floor of Aincrad. If you can enter the dungeon and defeat the boss you may advance to the next floor. Defeat the boss on floor one-hundred and you will clear the game. Last but not least I have placed a little present in the item storage of every player. Please have a look."

I opened my item storage and found that this mystery item is a mirror. What could be so special about a mirror? Might as well find out. I equipped it and analyzed it, seems to be a regular mirror. Wait a minute! That's my real face and not my avatars! I was blinded by a bright blue light and that caused me to drop my mirror.

When the light faded my hair was longer, so I grabbed it to bring it closer to my face. It was my original hair color of pale blue instead of my avatars black. My hair was also in a high ponytail and it flowed down to my waist. There was also a little braid hanging from each side of my face how I normally wear it. If my hair is like it is IRL then it should be safe to assume my eyes are gray like how they should be.

"Right now you are probably wondering why. Why would Akihiko Kayaba, developer of Sword Art Online and Nervegear do this? Ultimately my goal was a simple one, the reason why I created Sword Art Online was so that I could control a world of my design. As you can see I have achieved my goal. This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players I wish you the best of luck." With that he started to disappear and the warning icons left the sky. That was when the panic started.

I feel like I should be panicking too, but right now I'm not. The only thing on my mind at this moment is that I should find my brother, we can protect each other. Right now that is all we can do really. It will take some time to get to the one-hundredth floor, so surviving until then is my top priority. If I can't make it home I'll make sure my brother does. It's part of being a big sister, I need to protect him. Though he is very intelligent for his age and I can see him doing fine on his own I don't think I'll allow him to do that.

Looking around at the chaos around me I tried to locate him. Knowing him he would have moved on to the next village to get a head start on collecting money and xp this wouldn't be his first mmorpg. I think I see him on the other side of the plaza dragging a red-headed man. I tried to cut across to them as fast as I could without alerting other people that I'm leaving in a hurry. I was successful.

I started running down the street and passed the red-head who was going back to the plaza. I couldn't see my brother anywhere, but he can't be too far. I started running even faster to try and catch up with him. If I saw him over here then I know exactly which town he is going to next. Eventually I'll run into him and I did. He wasn't too far out of the town.

"Kirito!" I shouted still running after him.

He stopped abruptly and turned to me, "You're here?!" He exclaimed. "I was hoping that you forgot to meet me and didn't login."

"No, I'm here." I stated. "I'm going with you."

"Right, then let's hurry before others start to come." I nodded my head in agreement and we started running to the next town together. We saw a wolf and we each pulled out our swords. I used both hands for a power strike and Kirito only used one for a quick one as we passed the wolf, killing it.

I think that we will go far in this game. I bet at some point people will remember our names. We will become hero's, Kirito and Nieriel. I wouldn't mind that. I think I'll like being a hero. I smiled to myself at the thought.


	2. Chapter 2

Since we've been stuck in this death game a month has passed. In that time Kirito and I have been trying to level like crazy. There is only so much money and xp on this floor, I think that it's mostly depleted here and we have to move on to the next floor. Yeah, after all this time we are still on floor one, but this afternoon there is a meeting to discuss finding and defeating the floor one boss. For some reason none of us have been able to find it. I may have been a beta tester, but Kirito and I just can't seem to locate the boss. Not that we would have taken it on by ourselves. We still could have found it and created a bigger party to clear it.

Everyone's spirits have been down. Two thousand players have been deleted since the game came online. Most of the remaining four thousand have given up on finishing the game. All that I can think about is how I have to fight for my life just so I can see my mom and Suguha again. IRL I always thought that I could see them at anytime because I still lived at home only that wasn't the case. I was always at work, which is where I would develop new video games much like SAO. When I came home I would continue to work on my own little projects, the ones where I didn't collaborate with other people on. They would just be my own little creations for myself that I would be too afraid to share with others, because they all didn't seem like they were as up to scale as the video games I made with other people. I'm not sure what they were missing… I thought I would figure it out one day, but now I realize I had everything wrong. Who puts a computer before their own family?

If I ever make it home I'm going to make it up to them. I'll go to the dojo and spar with Suguha every chance I get. I'll even let her train me in kendo just so I can spend time with her. I'll have to make sure I tell her and mom that I love them at least twice a day. I'll be all smiley and cheerful all the time instead of my nonchalant self. Also Kirito, he may be stuck in this game with me, but I have plans to take him on adventures with me around the world. We can go to Paris, London, Hollywood, or even Sydney. Really it can be anywhere as long as I can get him away from a computer, he is as attached to one as I am.

Why am I talking about if's? We will make it out of here. I have to start being optimistic otherwise there is no reason for me to continue fighting to complete this game. I believe we could finish this game, it will take quite awhile, but it can happen. Our first step is to go to this meeting.

Those of us that actually showed up for the meeting gathered in an outdoor amphitheater much like the one's in Ancient Greece. Kirito and I sat near the top a bit farther from everyone meeting didn't start yet, but it should any minute. Who called for this meeting again?

Someone started clapping slowly to get our attention. He was standing on the stage, so he must have been the one to call this meeting. His hair was blue only a shade darker than mine. It was a bit longer for a guy and he was wearing some newer looking armor over the top of his standard outfit the rest of us are wearing.

"Well it looks like everyone is here so we can start." He said. "Let's get this meeting started!" Looking around I don't know if I should be shocked these are all the people that came or if this turnout is what I should have expected with everyone in their bad mood slump. "First off I would like to thank you all for coming, nice to see you. My name is Diabel and in this game I rolled is knight!"

People started laughing. I don't understand what is so funny, if he wants to be a knight then let him be a knight. Someone from below me shouted, "Dude, there's no job system in this game!" while everyone else continued to talk about Diabel.

"Hey, do you guys want to hear this or not?" Diabel asked. The talking quieted and he continued, "Right anyway here's the deal, our party found the boss room at the top of the tower today." Everyone started chatting again, finally we have some good news. "First we have to defeat the boss and make it to floor two. The next step is we have to tell everyone waiting in the Town of Beginnings that it is possible to beat this game. The fact is it's our duty as the most capable players, do you agree? Or not?"

It took a couple of seconds, but everyone started clapping. "I think that's exactly how it has to be done. Don't you agree Kirito?" I asked him. He smiled and nodded. Huh, looks like he's going to be quiet today.

Diabel took that as a good sign. "Okay, glad you're all with me on this. Now to figure out how to beat the boss. First we'll team off into parties of six." Dang, where am I going to find four more people? I noticed Kirito frantically look around before he grabbed my arm and dragged me over to someone at the end of our row who was wearing a cloak.

"Were you left out too?" Kirito asked.

"Not really, it just seems like everyone else is friends." Replied a very feminine voice.

"That can be fixed." I said. "Would you like to be friends? We're solo players too, but it wouldn't hurt to have a friend in this game."

The cloaked girl didn't say anything to that so Kirito added, "You don't actually have to friend us, it was just a suggestion. It would be useful for us to all join in the same party though, Diabel was right about that." Kirito pulled up his main menu and went to add her to our party. I was a bit surprised that she accepted. She didn't really seem like she wanted to associate with others.

Her health bar appeared right below mine and Kirito's. "Your name is Asuna?" I asked. She nodded her head. "I'm Nieriel and this is my younger brother Kirito, it's a pleasure to be in a party with you!" I held my hand out to shake hers with a big smile on my face. She actually shook my hand, it was brief but there.

"It looks like everyone's teamed up." Diabel drew our attention back to the stage. "Now then-"

"Hold up a sec." Some guy interrupted him. He jumped down to the stage and took the focus off of Diabel. "My name's Kibaou got that? Before we take on the boss I want to get something off my chest, we all know about the two thousand people that died so far yeah? Well some of you need to apologize right now!" He yelled pointing at us.

"Kibaou, are you referring to the beta testers?" Diabel asked.

"Of course I mean them, the day this game started the beta testers just up and left. They didn't attempt to help anybody we were just left for dead."

That's not true. Kirito told me about how he helped that red-head, whose name I was told was Klein, activate his sword skills. However, I did not go out of my way to help someone like that, but I do give out little pieces of advice about with quests to do and which fields to hunt in. There really is not too much us beta testers can do.

Kibaou continued to rant about how the beta testers should give up their money to non beta testers. How we took all the easy quests and stuff. I tuned him out because he was annoying me. Kirito and I have been leaving the easy quests for other people to do. I've been having us go for the harder ones being that we were playing together now instead of solo like we usually do. I knew that with both of us we could take on harder work. It just works out in our favor with the higher amount of money and xp.

I saw Kirito was uneasy, so I took one of his hands in my own. "Don't worry about it. He doesn't know what he's saying." I whispered.

"Excuse me can I say something?" A bald African looking man asked. He got up and walked to Kibaou. "Hey my name is Agil, you're Kibaou right? I wanna make sure I'm on the same page. You think the ex beta testers are responsible for the rookies deaths because they didn't help them and you want them to apologize and give up their winnings. Did I leave anything out?"

"No, you didn't." Kibaou said.

"This is a guidebook, the item store was handing them out for free. You got one didn't you?" He asked pulling out a small brown book. Agil's got him now.

"Yeah, so?"

"Do you know who was handing these out?" Agil questioned. "The ex beta testers" Turning to the rest of the crowd he said, "Listen up. Everyone had equal access to this information, so see it's no one's fault. I'm here because I want to beat the boss." Agil left to sit back down and Kibaou followed.

"Moving on with the meeting." Diabel said. "Information on the boss is in the newest edition of the guidebook you just heard about. The boss's name is Illfang the Kobold Lord, also he'll be surrounded by his minions the Ruin Kobold Sentinels. He carries an axe and a bucklar. He also has four health bars, when the last one turns red he turns to a curved sword-type weapon called a talwar. He can change his patterns of attack too. That's all for briefing. Now money will be distributed equally. The group that defeats the boss gets the xp and whoever gets an item gets to keep it. Does that sound about right?" He took everyone's silence for agreement. " Good, we leave tomorrow at ten in the morning meeting adjourned."

Everyone else started talking to each other in their groups while Asuna got up and left. "Wait Asuna, we will go with you." I called after her. I got up and moved around Kirito with him following after.

"Why would you want to come with me?" She asked.

"Are you kidding? We just joined a party together, I want to make sure I can trust the person we will be fighting with." I said. It started to turn into night and the town lights switched on. I felt hungry. "Are you hungry? We can eat by the fountain."

"Looks like it will be bread again tonight." Kirito said.

"It's not so bad. I have some of that stuff left if you want some." I suggested.

"Nah, I'll be fine with mine." He said. The three of us sat down at the bench by the fountain and got out our bread. Asuna was just eating hers plain until Kirito suggested she put some of the stuff in his pot on it. I'm not even close to understanding how this world makes food. Kirito has butter, and mine is like strawberry jam. It makes eating this virtual food better. Asuna had no problem with scarfing down her bread with the butter.

Kirito and I chatted with Asuna a bit. She's kind of a bleak person. Kirito made her promise not to die tomorrow, because it kind of seems like she doesn't care if she lives or dies any more. She agreed not to let herself die, which relieved me. I wouldn't want someone who is in a party with me dying for whatever reason. I think that would be traumatizing. Don't forget to mention it's also a risk for us, someone has to cover where they fall.

The next day we met up with the rest of our group to head out. We were right on time. Diabel had our party as backup, so we will only be taking out the minions. Understandable, we are only half of his preferred party afterall.

On the walk to the dungeon Kirito was trying to think of a battle plan for our small party and didn't realize Asuna was never in one before. It's not like he can blame her, he didn't know what a switch was until we partied up this last month. So for his behavior towards Asuna I had to smack him upside the head. Then I explained to her what a switch was, it's pretty self explanatory.

We all stopped to prepare ourselves before we went into the boss room and that was when Diabel told us to win. We will damn well try. The door opened revealing a dark room. We walked in a little ways before the lights turned on and Illfang the Kobold Lord jumped in front of us. His minions materialized a few seconds later. We all charged into battle with the mindset of winning and that is exactly what is going to happen. Kirito and Asuna did their switching while I took all the surrounding minions that would try and attack them from behind.

I noticed Kirito's attention pulled away from the minions, so I looked to see that Diabel rushed up to the boss by himself for the killing blow. That wasn't a part of the plan he had told us. Now is not the time to be a hero. Wait a minute, is he going for that hit because he knows about the last attack bonus?

As Diabel was running up Illfang changed weapon's, only this was something different than what the guidebook said. I also don't remember that weapon being his in the beta. Something is not right. "Wait stop, it's no good!" Kirito yelled to him. Diabel kept going, determined to finish this boss. He didn't stand a chance. Illfang practically batted him to the side. I saw that Diabel's health bar was far down in the red and still dropping. Kirito ran to him with a health potion.

I tried to think of multiple scenarios in my head of how this could end. The good and the bad equalled each other out, so I decided this was the time. I sighed as I pulled up my inventory, "I was hoping to test this out some other time, but no time is better than the present." I switched swords to the new one I got the other day. It was gifted to me because I reached high levels of speed, strength and agility. I feel like it was mostly strength though.

Diabel disappeared into pixels, which signified his death. Kirito slowly got up and at the sight of the great sword in my grip he smiled. "You're finally going to take that thing out for a spin."

"Yup." I returned his grin. "I'll block his attacks and you and Asuna will hit him fast."

"Sounds like a good plan to me." Asuna agreed.

"Let's go!" Kirito shouted. I ran ahead first making sure to have a good grip with both of my hands and then activating my sword skill moments before my sword clashed with Illfang's. My sword was as big as his, though mine seemed to be more from the King Arthur era.

Kirito and Asuna passed by, each slicing deep into Illfang's side. His health isn't quite depleted all the way, but another hit should do it. Illfang pulled back a bit so he could swing his sword at me some more. Each blow came hard and fast, but I held on. I saw Kirito run up behind Illfang and slice him down the middle. Illfang disappeared with the blue shards of programming he became.

A large congratulations sign appeared above us. Just like that we had the first floor boss defeated. Cheers went around until things got a bit messy with Kibaou. He started saying mean stuff about Kirito being a beta tester. Of course Kirito had to talk back, now he is known as a beater. I think he actually handled that quite well. He even equipped into a black jacket and walked out. Asuna followed him not much later.

"You might as well classify me as a beater too." I said. "I can't let my brother have all the fun here. I'm worse than he is."

"You are despicable. " Kibaou said disgusted.

"It seems you have a problem with me and Kirito being different than you." I stated. "How about a battle?" I swung up my sword and got into battle position.

"With that sword? I don't think so." He said, eyeing my sword uneasily. "I bet you used beater knowledge to get it."

"Well you bet wrong. You know what? I just realized I don't have time to fight a little flower such as yourself, so I'm going to go." I attached my sword to my back and proceeded to follow Kirito out not paying any mind to the jabs Kibaou kept throwing at me. Asuna was coming back in, she must not be joining us. Kirito isn't used to being in a party. I'm actually a bit shocked he's letting me stay in a party with him. I like to believe it's different because we are family. Though I feel like there might be a time in the future that he will start to push me away.


	3. Chapter 3

Kirito noticed a group of people that needed help and so we helped them. We were not expecting them to praise us for our help or anything. That would explain why we were so shocked when they offered to buy us a meal. I wasn't really expecting anything from them other than a verbal thank you, if that.

Everyone raised their goblets, "To Nieriel and Kirito!" exclaimed their leader. The rest of the guild chanted after him.

"Really though, thank you for saving us what level are you?" One of the guys asked us.

I was about to reply when Kirito answered first, "Level twenty." But he's a level forty. Why would he lie to them?

"I'm a couple of levels above him." I added, which was true. Though I am not anywhere near being a level twenty.

"If you want we would love to have you two in our guild." One of them asked.

Kirito seemed lost in thought but then answered, "I'll do it."

"What about you Nieriel?" Kirito asked me.

"Honestly, joining a guild does not appeal to me." I said. I turned to the other guild members. "Thanks for the offer, but I've only ever played solo and teamed up with my brother here. I can't be in a guild, I would be too uncomfortable."

"Oh, that's okay." Keita said. "I hope you stay safe."

"Nieriel what are you saying?" Kirito questioned.

"Kirito can I talk to you outside?" He nodded his head and followed me out. We go outside and I found a bench for us to sit on before I continued. "You had to have known this day was coming."

"I was kind of hoping it wouldn't come." He said.

"Listen, I just don't want to join a guild. We can still see each other all the time. I'll even do a quest or two with the guild, but maybe this is for the best. You should make some friends in this game instead of partying with your sister all the time."

"But I like being with you. We are stuck here together and… I just don't want to separate from you and then something happens to one of us. Then I'll feel guilty and blame myself." He confessed.

"Don't be such a pessimist." I scolded. "As long as you don't try and take on a boss by yourself or make yourself a target of Laughing Coffin you'll be fine."

"With the Moonlit Black Cats I don't think either of those things is a possibility." He said.

"Good, then I'll leave tonight." After I said that we sat in silence for a couple of minutes before we went back to the Moonlit Black Cats.

None of them seemed bothered by my decision not to join them. They respected it. They all seemed like an amazing bunch. I hope Kirito finds happiness here. Sometimes if you play as a solo player for long enough you start to want to be around other people. For me having Kirito was enough. I was also able to make sure he was safe when he was with me, but I'm not worried about leaving him here with these people.

Tonight I'll slip away after everyone is asleep. Of course Kirito will try and see me off I'm sure. The others wouldn't have to concern themselves with me. I'll make sure to say my goodbyes to them before they go off to bed, but after that nothing else should matter to them.

Kirito decided to walk me to the edge of the town. We stopped on a hill that overlooked a valley where we saw a group of people killing wolves.

"Klein…" I heard Kirito softly.

"As in the Klein you taught a sword skill to?" I questioned. I looked over at the only redhead in the group to try and place his face, but I've only seen him one other time so it was difficult recognizing him.

"Yes, that Klein." He replied.

We continued to watch them work together to kill the last wolf. As it turns out Kirito and I didn't have to state our presence, Klein noticed us first.

"Hey Kirito!" He shouted to us smiling. He glanced in my direction and sprinted to Kirito, pulling him over to the side. "You partied up with a girl! A very hot girl too. What is up with you, I thought you didn't party with anyone."

"If you are trying to be inconspicuous it's not working." I casually mentioned. "I'm also not just a girl, I'm his older sister Nieriel."

"Sister…" Klein trailed uncertain.

"I told you about her, she designs video games and gets to beta test other games. She is my favorite sister." Kirito explained.

"I'm your favorite sister?" Klein pushed Kirito away and scrambled to me. He grabbed my hand and started shaking it while introducing himself, "My name is Klein, I'm twenty-two and single!"

Kirito shoved him away from me saying, "Not cool man."

"He was just introducing himself." I said. I turned back to Klein and added, "I am Nieriel, twenty-three and not that it matters but I am also single." I finished with a wink.

"Nieri don't wink at him!" Kirito exclaimed. "It will only provoke him."

"Into doing what? Flirting with me? I can handle that as long as he doesn't try to take advantage of me." I said.

"I would never!" Klein yelled.

"See, I'm fine. Nothing to worry about."

"Hey Kirito what is that icon above your head? Wait, did you join a guild?" Klein asked. "Why does Nieriel not have one?" I glanced over to Kirito to see his face fall.

"You see Kirito and I are going to separate for awhile." I started explaining. "He was just going to walk with me to the edge of town and we were going to say goodbye."

Klein seemed frantic seeming to realize what he interrupted. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't be here. Please forgive me I'll be going now."

"No wait Klein! Stay!" Kirito got him to stay. He turned to me, "Stay with him. I'll be with the guild, but you will be on your own. Please stay with them for awhile. You don't have to join their guild, but remember what you said about making friends in the game?"

"Kirito I can't just intrude on their lives."

"Actually we wouldn't mind." Klein interrupted. "A pretty lady such as yourself shouldn't be traveling alone anyway."

"Was that meant to be sexist? Because it sounded like it." I said getting a bit upset.

"No! That's not what I meant. Kirito wouldn't have to worry about your well being if you were with a group of people."

"I guess you're right…"

"Please Nieri?" Kirito begged.

"Fine, I'll group up with them for awhile." I agreed. I hugged him tight and sent him on his way back to his new guild. I turned back to Klein, "Well, are you going to introduce me to everyone?"

"Right let's go!" He grabbed my hand and pulled me along with him to the rest of his guildmates.

They were all flabbergasted to see me with Klein. They must not spend much time with girls IRL because they were kind of awkward around me. They were introduced to me as Dale, Dynamm, Harry, Issin, and Kunimittz.

Together we continued on to the next town leveling up as we went. These guys are easy to get along with. I don't think I will mind being with them for awhile.

At the next town we decided to call it a night and get some rooms at an inn there. We got two rooms with two beds per room. Dale, Harry, Issin, and Dynamm shared a room while Kunimittz, Klein and I shared a room. The boys allowed me to have a bed to myself so I didn't have to share and it wouldn't be awkward.

Time went by and I ended up spending a few months with the members of the Fuurinkazan guild. I've gotten to know them really well, we all became the best of friends. Then there is Klein, I think I might have feelings for him. I'm not sure how it happened either it just did. It might be because I love the person he is. He is so supportive of his friends and compassionate of others. He is always willing to help out. He even goes out of his way to make others happy.

Now it is Christmas Eve and several guilds are trying to find Nicholas The Renegade. It is said that he will be waiting under a fir tree and if we complete his quest we will receive an item that will bring back the dead. Of course Fuurinkazan wanted apart of some of the action and so here I am helping them find it when we run into Kirito.

I was hoping we would run into him. He told me about how his guild met an untimely demise while they were exploring a dungeon. They discovered a hidden room and were trapped in there. Kirito was the only survivor and when he told Keita about it later that day when he came back from getting their house he committed suicide by jumping off a balcony. He couldn't dream of living without his good friends. Since that happened I haven't been able to track down Kirito, his evasive levels are too high for me to track him. I figured he needed some time alone anyway, but to avoid all together is a bit extreme.

"Kirito!" I ran to him to hug him and then I punched him in the arm hard. "That is for avoiding me. When something like that happens to a person you are not supposed to shut yourself off from other people, especially if it's your sister."

"Sorry, I just didn't want to be reminded that both of us will probably die in here." He mumbled.

"What did I say about being a pessimist!?" I yelled, "We will make it back to mom and Suguha."

Suddenly we were met with the Holy Dragon Alliance who was following us. "We will hold them off." Klein said. "You go after that item."

"Kirito, I'll stay here and help them. You better come back." I said. He nodded and ran off. Fuurinkazan and I fought until the Holy Dragon Alliance exhausted themselves and retreated. We all dropped to the ground also exhausted and waited for Kirito to come back.

When he did he was emotionless. He slowly walked towards me.

"It's to late to save her, but I can save you." He started crying and fell into my arms. "It has to be used within ten seconds of a player dying." Oh, Sachin died months ago.

"You won't have to use it. Not on me, I promise." I said stroking his hair.

"Please don't leave me again." He continued crying. It looks like this is where I leave the members of Fuurinkazan. I am happy to be reunited with Kirito, but I'll also be leaving new friends. I'm sure we'll meet again. Someday I can see them clearing floors with the assault team that Kirito and I join up with every once in awhile.

"Alright, I promise I won't leave you again." I promised. Knowing that either one of us could die at any moment I am grateful to be partying up with Kirito. This way I know he will be protected. I don't think he will ever willingly join a guild again.

The guys tried not to look at us, trying to give us some form of privacy which I didn't really care much about. I'm sure they thought they were intruding on something.

"I love you." Kirito said.

"I love you too." I replied. "I promise we will get home okay? I'm going to take you with me to Brazil or England, somewhere anywhere I don't care. It will be a family trip, we will take with mom and Suguha too. We will make so many memories together that it will make up for the time we were stuck here. Does that sound like a plan?"

"Yeah, I would be down with that." He agreed, still holding on to me for dear life.

"Hey we should go, it's getting late." I nudged him off of me. "I'll say my goodbyes and we can go." He nodded in agreement before he fully let go of me. I walked to each guy and gave them their hugs. When I got to Klein I also gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you for allowing me to accompany your guild even when I didn't want at the time. I will miss all of you, but we will see each other again."

"You're welcome." He said. "You two take care, you better live."

I smiled at them and waved goodbye as I took Kirito's hand in mine and he teleported us out of there.

We went to an inn for the night. We only got a single room and shared a bed, I didn't think Kirito would want to sleep alone anyway so it worked out. I was so tired that I fell asleep as soon as my body it the bed.

It wasn't until morning that I discovered Kirito stayed up later and actually received a prerecorded message from Sachin. He spent the next few hours after that crying before he fell asleep next to me. The evidence of his crying was all over his face the next morning which is what lead me to question him about it.


End file.
